PDX Playwrights proudly upholds our reputation as “the festival within the festival” with a robust and exciting array of plays in staged readings for Fertile Ground. With 17 plays by 15 area playwrights in 10 events, our lineup promises something for nearly everyone. Locavores with an appetite for creativity should consider a Festival Pass – and designating PDX Playwrights at the end of the transaction lends support to our talented participants.
Plays are listed below in order of performance. Scroll down and read these listings for a sense of our dynamic work. A free noon teaser sampling of short plays will appear Jan. 31 at the Portland Center Stage Mezzanine at the Armory, 128 NW Davis St. All other events by PDX Playwrights appear at Hipbone Studio, 1847 E Burnside. Tickets for Hipbone performances are available at the door and in advance via Box Office Tickets online or by phone: 800-494-8497 (TIXS), or via Big Red Arrow. We look forward to seeing you!
1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26
Over — by Dave Chapman
Tickets: $10 | Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS)
Jack and Nicole are through. But before Jack can walk out the door and leave forever, Nicole’s sister Tabitha arrives unexpectedly. She’s acting disoriented. She must be drunk. But how did she get there? Where’s her car? And how does she so easily escape their watchful eyes at the hospital? While Tabitha befriends Nicole’s sad-sack neighbor, Jack struggles to discover what has happened to her…or what she has done. No one is prepared for the disturbing truth, as each in turn learns the consequences of sacrificing too much to please someone else.
3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26
Kleptofamilia — by Gary Corbin
Directed by Juliana Wheeler
Dramaturgy by Ciji Guerin
Tickets: $10 | Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS)
Cate, a divorced middle-aged woman, is in desperate financial straits – not only from her divorce, but from bailing herself and her daughter out of jail for stealing. Her control-freak boyfriend Edgar wants to take their relationship to the next level, but he’s too risk-averse to make the right moves. When Cate’s daughters propose an innovative art show at Edgar’s gallery, everybody’s buttons get pushed – including the jealousy button of Cate’s ex-husband, Drew.
6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26
Short Works: P-Town Playwrights — Susan Faust, Miriam Feder, Alan Fitch, Rich Rubin and Heather Thiel
Directed by Susan Faust
Tickets: $10 | Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS)
Through Thick and Thin: The Further Exploits of Ubu Roi by Susan Faust: On the eve of (un)natural disaster, Mr. Thick, mayor of Big Town, and his wily roommate, Mr. Thin, duke it out in their penthouse apartment. Along comes Ms. Broad … but will anyone survive? In the grand absurdist tradition of the Ubu Roi, this play may (or may not) answer life’s little nagging questions.
Objects May Shift During Flight by Miriam Feder: We’ve all heard the warning. But some odd realignments ensue in a world of excessive stuff: animal; mineral and pickle.
Elective Surgery by Alan Fitch: A routine case of the blues takes a macabre turn for the worse when Bill Harmon seeks help from overly-zealous psychiatrist Dr. Grosz. Sometimes the “cure” really is worse than the disease.
Carbon Coping by Rich Rubin: Will talk of carbon emissions thwart an intimate moment? Don’t you just hate when that happens?
Nebraska by Heather Thiel: In 2008 Nebraska’s safe-haven law lets overwhelmed parents abandon children of any age at hospitals. OCD teen Rob and wild sister Minda are just visiting to see their Lakota birthplace and grab a green jello at the cafeteria … right?
8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26
Zombiella — by SunBear Theaters
Score by Kevin Muir
Directed by Paul Bright
Tickets: $10 if Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS) | $15 at the door
When Aunt Marlene disappears from the morgue, Rocky seeks the help of astute, beautiful, hard-boiled detective Betty Blue. A baron, a piper, body-snatching, broads, booze, brawls and yes, hold on to your brains—zombies!
Noon Friday, Jan. 31 – Armory Mezzanine, 128 NW 11th Ave.
Show Us Your Shorts, Again: The Teaser — by John Servilio, Brad Bolchunos and Michael Cooper
Tickets: Free
This “teaser” event at the Armory Mezzanine offers a lunch-hour appetizer escape with short plays and excerpts of works by PDX Playwrights, including Irrespective Perspective by Brad Bolchunos, Two Starches by John Servilio, and Cue by Michael Cooper. The full menu showcasing all of the pieces in their entirety appears later the same day at Hipbone Studio.
7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31
Show Us Your Shorts, Again — by Kate Belden, Brad Bolchunos, John Servilio, John Donnelly and Michael Cooper
Tickets: $10 | Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS)
The head-turning success of the 2013 PDX Playwrights event “Show Us Your Shorts” practically demanded a look at an all new collection of short plays.
They are Afraid of you, Shawn by Kate Belden: Claire and Sam barely bite back words of accusation and frustration as they broach the subject of medicating their son Shawn. Their environment is just as aggressive, changing with each turn of the discussion. Does Shawn stand a chance in this jungle?
Irrespective Perspective by Brad Bolchunos: Danvers leads his life with a curious literary tic. Fiona seethes with a secret. When their paths cross in a rare book room brimming with other quirky individuals, absurdity blooms. Directed by Kathryn Bennett.
Two Starches by John Servilio: Mary makes a stuffed shell dinner, special, just for her grown son, but he doesn’t get to have bread with it? Fuhgeddaboudit! Mary has her reasons for this hiccup in familial bliss, but it ain’t gonna be pretty. Directed by Charles Rule.
Replacing Jack by John A. Donnelly: Marcie is so confused. She found Jack, the man of her dreams, but now wants to replace him with another man of her dreams. But are they literally of her dreams? And what about the new man she meets?
The Flimflam Shamble by Brad Bolchunos: William “Flimflam” Barrington strives to see the world in a magical way and his vision might be contagious. But one day in a train station, an encounter threatens to unleash his greatest fear. Directed by Kathryn Bennett.
Cue by Michael Cooper: Four Hamlets find themselves caught in an existential dilemma while waiting for a cue.
1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2
Against Nature — by Matt Russell and Beth Damiano
Directed by Matt Russell
Tickets: $10 | Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS)
A broken, drug-addled woman tries to exact revenge on the man who murdered her brother years earlier. She writes vitriolic letters to him and he responds from prison. Meanwhile a young Christian befriends a gay man to help him overcome his homophobia. As these two stories unfold we come to see the interconnection and also how the choices we make affect ourselves and our world.
3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2
Eat Your Words, Dear — by John Servilio
Directed by Charles Rule
Tickets: $10 | Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS)
6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2
Shadows — by Redmond Reams
Directed by JJ Harris
Tickets: $10 | Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS)
Mark is an abused toddler who goes from his birth home, through foster care, to his adoptive home. Mark keeps his emotional distance from adoptive parents Rachel and Tom, who are eager to give him their love, yet struggle to understand him given their own history of loss. We see the intersection of these three individuals; their pain, their self-protection, their yearning for connection, their shared misunderstanding, and their difficult pathway forward together.
8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2
The Strangest Story Ever Told — by Clinton Kelly Clark
Directed by Kathryn Bennett
Tickets: $10 | Online or 800-494-8497 (TIXS)
There’s gold in Thomas Bay. Harry knows it. The only problem is everyone Harry sends up there comes back empty-handed, not to mention out of his mind. Harry’s prospectors tell pieces of a grizzly story—something is out there and it’s not playing nice. The native people call it the Kushtaka—the protectors of the Bay of Death. A true story about all the “gold” in our lives and what we risk to get it.
